


Hoshi-Woozi Combo

by wooziwinks



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Awkward Encounters, Canon Compliant, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Meta, its very soft..., public vs private life, shy jihoon, the angel jeonghan makes a brief appearance, theyre just very soft and shy!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:28:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23298550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wooziwinks/pseuds/wooziwinks
Summary: Jihoon had heard of the Hoshi-Woozi combo. In fact, that was part of the reason why he’d written the song lyric in the first place. But really, if you asked him - and thankfully no one had ever dared to actually ask him - objectively speaking, Jihoon did not think he and Soonyoung were that compatible a pair.Three times Jihoon and Soonyoung aren't compatible and one time that they are. soonhoon fluff alert!
Relationships: Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Jihoon | Woozi
Comments: 8
Kudos: 194





	Hoshi-Woozi Combo

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wanting to post some soonhoon lately since they've been so active, so I wrote this a while ago as a warm up and thought I'd finally share :) hope yall are ready to get meta cause this fic is basically about soonhoon fiction/fanart lol

Jihoon had heard of the Hoshi-Woozi combo. In fact, that was part of the reason why he’d written the song lyric in the first place. He didn’t want to say he was making fun of Carats because he respected them too much for that, so he considered it more like an inside joke that was maybe between him and no one else. 

When your entire world is made up of thirteen people you can spend a lot of time in it. With only one or two or even three other people, eventually you’ll have to invite the outside in. But with thirteen, they could just keep orbiting around and around each other for ages and never need anyone else. And they did just that - all the time - whether it was really intentional or not. It was enough to leave their ears ringing when they would finally come crashing back down to everyone-else’s-earth. 

Jihoon’s ears were ringing now. He was staring at a piece of fan art that had popped up when he opened his extremely secret Twitter that he used to check on things sometimes. Trends, celebrities, news. The point was, he had not gone looking for this image. It had instead been thrust upon him. 

The picture depicted him, but with giant anime eyes. He was clinging onto an anime-eye-Soonyoung, and they were kissing. The caption had some kind of joke about tigers, but he wasn’t really looking at that. He noted with interest that the artist had drawn abs somehow visible through his shirt. Despite the muscle, he looked somehow twelve. Judging by the hair, they had referenced pictures of him from their debut era, which didn’t exactly align with anime-eye-Soonyoung’s “Clap” era red. 

Jihoon noted all this, then closed the app with a gulp. He stared at the wallpaper of his phone for a full minute, doing mental gymnastics to convince himself that the image hadn’t affected him. Still, he glanced around the waiting room to make sure none of the members had noticed his ears turn pink. Thankfully, they were all still in their own little worlds, napping and snacking and fooling around. They looked so far away all of a sudden, because they were still in the world from which Jihoon had been forcefully ejected. 

It wasn’t that he hated his job or his fans or anything like that, but sometimes, he hated facing who he was to them. It was because he wasn’t very aware of himself, but he couldn’t tell you that because, well, exactly that. 

He had convinced himself a long time ago that cameras could only ever capture a part of himself, and anyone who knew him only through pictures and videos knew a him that he wouldn’t recognize as himself. It wasn’t because he was so big and important that his ~essence~ was impossible to capture. It was basically just because he was kind of shy, and appearing on camera would never fundamentally come easily to him. 

It was this rationalization that had helped him come to terms with the Hoshi-Woozi combo a long time ago. Clearly his fans saw something in the pictures and videos between him and his friend that he just never would. And there were things between him and Soonyoung, too, that could never be captured on film for others to see. (Or analyze, or pick apart.) 

Because really, if you asked him - and thankfully no one had ever dared to actually ask him - objectively speaking, Jihoon did not think he and Soonyoung were that compatible a pair. It was because they were too similar. Kindred spirits. Even he knew himself well enough to know that he was pretty awkward, so naturally anyone that was like him would be awkward too - meaning they could never fit too well together. 

~~~

The first time this had occurred to Jihoon was the first time he’d seen Soonyoung cry. Sure, he’d seen him cry plenty of times before - watching sappy dramas in the dorm, or when they’d won their first award. But this time was the first time Soonyoung had cried _to him_. 

It was at the end of a long practice. They had both flopped down in the corner of the practice room, too tired to talk for a long time, just panting and sweating. The choreography for the dance they were preparing was difficult in a totally new way - but it always was like that. Jihoon had gone through this enough times to talk himself down from getting frustrated because he knew sooner or later it would click, for him and for everyone else. It always did. 

He lolled his head onto his shoulder to watch Soonyoung as the boy leaned forward to tie his shoe. He tied it and untied it four times before he was satisfied with the knot, then double knotted it securely. It was rhythmic enough to be hypnotizing, and Jihoon nearly jumped when Soonyoung finally spoke. 

“It’s difficult, isn’t it?”

Jihoon shrugged. 

“The dance? Yeah.”

He offered. Soonyoung worried at his bottom lip, still staring down at his neat double-knot. 

“Is it difficult because it’s bad?”

Jihoon furrowed his brow at that. 

“I don’t think so.”

He answered truthfully. The dark haired boy finally lifted his face to look at him, and Jihoon was surprised by how big and sorrowful his eyes had gotten. His lip was trembling, too. This had all been building up to something but Jihoon hadn’t seen it coming until it was too late. 

“I think maybe it’s bad.”

Soonyoung was barely able to get it out, his voice hardly above a whisper, before he burst into tears. Jihoon gulped at the sight, watching dumbly as big, wet tears spilled up and over and down onto his friend’s cheeks. His throat instantly became tight. 

“S-Soonyoung…”

He started, but he didn’t know what to say next. Suddenly, a voice cooed from above him, 

“Soonie!” 

Jeonghan joined them on the floor, kneeling down to take Soonyoung’s cheeks gently in his hands, thumbs rubbing away the tears as they came. 

“What’s wrong?”

Soonyoung’s lip trembled pathetically as he cried “hyung!” and lunged forward into the older boy’s arms, who welcomed him against his chest and patted his hair. 

“Oh, it’s okay, Soonie. You’re just tired. It’s been a long day, hasn’t it.”

Jeonghan cooed, somehow knowing what was wrong without being told. If that was a hyung instinct, Jihoon didn’t have that one yet. He watched the scene unfolding before him, his throat still feeling tight. 

He had had no clue what he was supposed to do to help Soonyoung. Now that the situation was taken care of, he tried to step back and think about it so maybe next time he’d have a better idea. He thought about what Jeonghan had done. Cupping Soonyoung’s face in his hands. Well, that wasn’t going to work for him. He wasn’t really a touchy-feely person like that. He certainly wasn’t an angel like Jeonghan. 

Instead, he tried to think about what he would have wanted if _he_ was the one crying. Well, firstly, he’d want to be left alone. He didn’t cry often, but when he did, he didn’t like other people looking at him. It wasn’t so much a pride thing - he was just shy. He didn’t like people looking at him in general, if he was being totally honest. For now he decided to set that solution aside though, because he couldn’t picture getting up and walking away if faced with another tearful Soonyoung. He would have to do _something_. 

Well if he couldn’t be left alone, then he liked to hide his face, for basically the same reason. Then others wouldn’t see him while he cried. He hated the idea of trying to monitor how his face looked while crying. Even Jeonghan wasn’t very beautiful when he cried, and he shouldn’t have to be anyways. 

That maybe would’ve helped Soonyoung too, but he wasn’t sure how else he could have hidden his face besides hugging, and again - that wasn’t something he necessarily did much. Wouldn’t it be weird to hug his friend suddenly, when he never really did that? 

If all else failed - if there really was no way to hide the fact that he was crying - Jihoon supposed he liked to be distracted. One time, on a particularly late night in the studio - early on, when he wasn’t as confident in his abilities - he had been crying from frustration over a tricky bit of song. Seongcheol was the only one in the room with him at the time, and he had felt his hyung’s eyes on him when he’d finally noticed that yes, Jihoon was crying. 

A long silence had stretched between them before finally his hyung leaned over to hold up his phone to the younger with a simple “Look.” Jihoon had lifted his gaze to blink back at a live image of himself, but with a face filter that made him look - literally, with face paint and a stupid hat - like a clown. He was so startled, he couldn’t help but laugh. It wasn’t lost on him that he felt like a fucking clown, at that moment, which is part of what made it so funny. 

Cheol had burst into a grin and scooted over to lean his head on his dongsaeng’s shoulder so his face was in the frame too. He then proceeded to show Jihoon all kinds of stupid face filters and the pair took about a million selfies together as clowns, and cartoony bunnies, and whatever else. 

Jihoon wondered if something like that would have helped Soonyoung. It hadn’t occurred to him, but maybe it would next time. He frowned at that thought, standing up and walking away to leave Jeonghan to the comforting duties. Actually, he hoped there wouldn’t be a next time. Firstly because he didn’t think he was the right person to comfort Soonyoung. They just weren’t compatible in that way - clearly. Secondly, because he didn’t want his friend to cry anymore. 

~~~

The second time Jihoon realized he and Soonyoung weren’t compatible was when the producers had figured it out, too. 

For whatever reason the two of them had been chosen to shoot a little segment together for an episode of Going Seventeen, basically like MC-ing but it was supposed to look more natural than that, like they were just hanging out together. That was all it really was: about 30 minutes of recording Jihoon and Soonyoung just vibing. But by the end of the session Jihoon could see in the crew’s eyes that whatever they had been hoping to get out of this definitely hadn’t happened. 

Jihoon didn’t feel bad for them because they should’ve known better. Soonyoung was an introvert, just like him. Well not _just_ like him - actually, he went about it pretty fundamentally differently - but in many instances they were pretty damn similar. If you put the two of them alone in a room together, they would fall into a natural silence. _That_ was the Hoshi-Woozi combo, really. Laying around in comfortable silence, maybe not even facing or acknowledging each other except to occasionally hold up their phone to show something funny to the other. 

But that wasn’t what Going Seventeen wanted from them right now, and it was only about five minutes into sitting around on a couch together before the pair had figured that out. Jihoon could feel Soonyoung’s eyes on him, drifting around the room and then back to him, then down at his hands then back to him again. He could see the wheels churning in his friend’s head, about to do that thing that Soonyoung could do that made him a fundamentally better introvert than Jihoon could ever hope to be. Like the sun suddenly emerging from behind a large cloud, the dark haired boy was able to just start _shining_.

“Jihoonie~” He cooed, leaning forward to close the space between them, trying to lay his cheek on the shorter’s shoulder. Jihoon shrugged him off, unfazed. 

“Your sweater is cute, is it new?”

He pawed at Jihoon’s sleeve, earning another nudge. 

“No.”

“I have one just like it, did we buy them together? I don’t remember. Do you?”

Jihoon grunted. Yes, Soonyoung did have a matching set, though he didn’t feel like telling that detail to the cameras. 

“Have you gone shopping lately? What did you buy?”

In moments like this, the questions from Soonyoung could be never ending. But as grumpy as he seemed, Jihoon wasn’t really annoyed with his friend as he babbled on and on. He had figured out long ago that it was Soonyoung’s way of reaching out, even when he felt shy. He _wanted_ to talk to Jihoon, but it was hard to know where to start - even when you’re friends. 

Jihoon felt that way all the time, with all of the members. He loved them so much, but he didn’t always know how to be around them. When he got shy - when suddenly there were too many eyes on him, or too many cameras in his face, or just too much chaos going on around him - the things he wanted to do and the things he was capable of doing were completely separate. Even if he wanted to keep joking and talking, his face would go flat and his words would turn into monosyllabic grunts. He wasn’t trying to be an asshole: this was just his body’s way of trying to get the uncomfortable feeling of too-much-attention to stop. Jihoon kind of hated it, but he was kind of at peace with it too, at this point, since none of the members seemed to hate him for it even after all this time. They understood why he was the way he was.

Even so, it _did_ mean that Soonyoung and he were uniquely incompatible when the both of them were feeling shy, which was more often than anyone seemed to register. After 30 minutes of filming the two of them working themselves into an exhausted, nervous wreck of incessant questions and stiff answers, the staff finally seemed to get the message. They called “That’s a wrap!”, Soonyoung and Jihoon parted ways to decompress, the footage was thrown out and the next day Soonyoung did it all again with Seungkwan. And of course, had a great time doing it. The two of them were able to build off of each other’s positive energy with ease, laughing their way through thirty minutes as if they could’ve easily gone three hours more. 

Jihoon obviously envied Soonyoung for that, but he admired him, too. His friend was able to pull confidence out of himself even when he was feeling shy, or a little awkward and unsure of himself. He flexed his confidence like a muscle until it was strong enough to support him when he needed it in a way Jihoon couldn’t fathom doing himself. That guy… he was introverted just like him, but he also was like some kind of alien. They just could never click. 

~~~

One day, the sun came out after a long time of rain. It was about a week after Jihoon had seen the fan art of twelve-year-old-with-abs-and-anime-eyes-Woozi kissing anime-eyes-”Clap”-era-Hoshi because he had forgotten about it entirely. He was up on the roof of the dorm, which was a place he liked to go when he wanted to go outdoors without actually being “in public” and therefore “seen”. 

Seokmin had been with him at first but had wandered downstairs again to get some lunch, which was a shame, Jihoon thought, because the sun was at its peak right now. He stood with his hands in his pockets, eyes closed and chin tilted up towards the sky, watching shadows dance behind his eyelids in the light. He heard the door to the roof open and turned to see Soonyoung approaching, though he had to blink several times before the sunspots would clear from his vision. 

“Are you just staring at the sun?”

Soonyoung laughed, seeming to have noticed Jihoon’s blurry vision. He nudged the lighter haired boy playfully when he reached him, who just shrugged in response before turning back to basking in the sun. Soonyoung fell comfortably into place beside him, breathing deeply as his eyes slipped closed too. 

Sometimes, Jihoon could sense all the small talk the two of them never bothered with because neither of them liked it. 

_It’s nice, isn’t it? After all that rain._

_On our day off, too._

_You’ve got the right idea. All I want to do today is relax. The dongsaengs already left on some adventure..._

_We’re getting old, aren’t we?_

_Oh, don’t say things like that. But yeah, maybe we are._

Instead they let the silence wash over them, like a gift they can give each other. Soonyoung is a lot like him, Jihoon thinks. He wasn’t sure if film could capture that. Maybe it was an observation just for him. 

The shorter opens his eyes to blink over at the taller, observing once his vision clears that his eyes are still closed. Jihoon looks at the sunlight on Soonyoung’s face and thinks it looks good. When he smiles - genuinely, like in the millisecond before he bursts out laughing, or when he receives a particularly flattering compliment - Soonyoung’s face looks just like it does now. Glowing. Jihoon isn’t sure that can be captured on film, either. 

Slowly, Soonyoung opens his eyes. He brings his chin back down and stares straight ahead. He takes a slow breath in. Jihoon watches, mesmerized, because he anticipates that something is going to happen. He knows, now. 

“Do you ever get worried on days off, just because you finally have the time to?” 

He finally asks, still staring ahead. 

_He’s asking a question because he wants to talk to you._ Jihoon knows that now. Soonyoung’s shy, like him, but he wants to talk. 

“Sometimes.”

He answers honestly. Jihoon isn’t really an anxious person, so he doesn’t get worried out of the blue or for no reason. If he’s worrying on a day off, it’s because he carried that worry with him from the previous day. He wonders if Soonyoung is the same. 

The dark haired boy gulps. He drops his gaze to blink down at his feet. Finally he lifts his eyes to look into Jihoon’s own. Jihoon knows this look now, even before the tears start falling. 

“I’m worrying about all kinds of things today, stuff I never have time to worry about. I’m worried about how old my parents are getting. I’m worried how old _I’m_ getting. I’m worried about how stupid I look in that video when we won our award and I cried. I’m worried that Chan might be able to beat me at arm wrestling now…”

He was babbling, and he was crying, now. His lower lip was trembling and the tears were just rolling and rolling down his round cheeks. Jihoon gulped, feeling his throat tighten. But he knew what to do, this time. 

“Soonyoung.”

He turned to the crying boy and took his face in his hands. Damn, it was exactly how he knew it would be. Not as gentle as Jeonghan, his fingers weren’t long and slender enough for that, and this touchy-feely stuff really wasn’t his thing anyways. Still, he had Soonyoung’s attention, watery eyes blinking back at him in surprise.

 _Okay, now do what you would want if you were crying._ Well, skipping over number one because there was no walking away now. Number two - 

“Close your eyes.”

Jihoon did it too, after he said it, but not before seeing his friend’s eyes slip closed obediently. He was actually quite proud of this solution. If they both closed their eyes then no one could see their faces, effectively hiding them. He could still hear Soonyoung sniffling, though, so this called for a distraction. 

Jihoon leaned in and closed the space between their faces to kiss Soonyoung. It was kind of… wet, the boy’s teary cheeks brushing against his own as he kissed him. Jihoon couldn’t help but tuck the little detail away in his mind’s eye for future lyric-writing, because he found it a little bit charming in a bizarre way. 

It wasn’t a long kiss, but Jihoon still vaguely felt the imprint of Soonyoung’s pillowy lips on his own when he pulled away to blink at him. He dropped his hands down, freeing the taller boy to blink back at him in surprise. 

“W-why did you do that?”

Jihoon gulped. His throat wasn’t tight anymore. 

“Now you don’t have to think about the other stuff.”

He tried to answer confidently, but his tone was just as surprised and a little apprehensive as Soonyoung’s own. The taller raised his eyebrows at that, apparently finding the answer even more surprising. He brought a hand up to brush a few fingers across his lips. Jihoon wondered if he felt the same way, like his lips were still there against him. 

Soonyoung laughed. First a kind of shocked chuckle. Then his face broke into a more genuine smile - the kind that glowed - and he laughed fully. Jihoon started laughing too, finding it too contagious with their faces this close together. This whole situation was ridiculous, really. Was kissing really the way to stop Soonyoung from crying? 

“Have you heard of the Hoshi-Woozi combo?” 

Soonyoung wiggled his eyebrows at the shorter before bursting out laughing again, doubling over with his arms crossed over his middle. Jihoon’s stomach did a flip at that mention but he quickly dismissed it and went on laughing with his friend. This wasn’t anything like that. It wasn’t something that could be captured and shared. This was something just for them.

**Author's Note:**

> leave a kudos or a comment if you smiled :) ps I dont think Hoshi is a crybaby I think he probably just gets a little overwhelmed sometimes <3


End file.
